William Thornton Blue sometimes credited as Bill Blue, was an American jazz

Jazz

Jazz is a musical style that originated at the beginning of the 20th century in African American communities in the Southern United States. It was born out of a mix of African and European music traditions. From its early development until the present, jazz has incorporated music from 19th and 20th...

 reed player.

Blue grew up playing in local bands in St. Louis, Missouri

St. Louis, Missouri

St. Louis is an independent city on the eastern border of Missouri, United States. With a population of 319,294, it was the 58th-largest U.S. city at the 2010 U.S. Census. The Greater St...

, where his father was a part-time music instructor. He played with Wilson Robinson's Bostonians, a territory band

Territory band

Territory bands were dance bands that crisscrossed specific regions of the United States from the 1920s through the 1960s. Beginning in the 1920s, the bands typically had 8 to 12 musicians. These bands typically played one-nighters, 6 or 7 nights a week at venues like VFW halls, Elks Lodges,...

, and worked with Charlie Creath

Charlie Creath

Charles Cyril "Charlie" Creath was an American jazz trumpeter, saxophonist, accordionist, and bandleader....

 and Dewey Jackson

Dewey Jackson

Dewey Jackson was an American jazz trumpeter and cornetist.Jackson began playing professionally at an early age, with the Odd Fellows Boys' Band , Tommy Evans , and George Reynolds's Keystone Band. He played with Charlie Creath on riverboats, and then led his own Golden Melody Band from 1920 to 1923...

 in the middle of the 1920s. Later that decade he worked with Andrew Preer's Cotton Club Orchestra in New York City

New York City

New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...

 and on tour in Europe as a member of Noble Sissle

Noble Sissle

Noble Sissle was an American jazz composer, lyricist, bandleader, singer and playwright.-Early life:...

's ensemble. He remained in Paris

Paris

Paris is the capital and largest city in France, situated on the river Seine, in northern France, at the heart of the Île-de-France region...

 briefly, playing with John Ricks

John Ricks

John J. Ricks , was a professional baseball player who played third base in the Major Leagues for the 1891 and 1894 St. Louis Browns.-External links:...

.

When he returned to New York, he joined The Missourians, led by Cab Calloway

Cab Calloway

Cabell "Cab" Calloway III was an American jazz singer and bandleader. He was strongly associated with the Cotton Club in Harlem, New York City where he was a regular performer....

, then worked with Luis Russell

Luis Russell

Luis Russell was a jazz pianist and bandleader.Luis Carl Russell was born on Careening Cay, near Bocas del Toro, Panama, in a family of Afro-Caribbean ancestry. His father was a music teacher, and young Luis learned to play violin, guitar, trombone, and piano...

. Due to failing health, he played little in the late 1930s and afterwards; he spent the last several years of his life in a sanatorium

Sanatorium

A sanatorium is a medical facility for long-term illness, most typically associated with treatment of tuberculosis before antibiotics...

.